The five were charged with four felonies each: using wire fraud to acquire confidential information from a public utility, unlawfully accessing computer data, identity theft and conspiracy in connection with each of those crimes.

Arrest warrants were issued for all five. If convicted on all counts, the five each face a maximum of 12.5 years in prison. The court set bail at $100,000 for Depante and $50,000 each for DeLia and Wagner. Bail for Dunn and Hunsaker was set at $5,000, or they could be released on their own recognizance.

Lockyer said his office would arrange Dunn's and Hunsaker's voluntary surrenders with their lawyers, and that DeLia. Depante and Wagner would be extradited to California to stand trial.

"These charges are being brought against the wrong person at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons," said Jim Brosnahan, Dunn's lawyer, in a statement Wednesday evening. "They are the culmination of a well-financed and highly orchestrated disinformation campaign." Brosnahan added that Dunn "will fight these charges with everything she has."

The charges stem from two investigations that Dunn launched in 2005 and 2006 to find the source of confidential boardroom information that was appearing in news reports. The first investigation, code-named Kona I, ended without any concrete findings, but the second probe, called Kona II and directed by Hunsaker, determined that former H-P board director George Keyworth was the source of the leaks. Keyworth quit the H-P board on Sept. 12.

According to statements released by H-P and the testimony of Hurd, Dunn and others before a congressional committee last week, investigators conducting the probe obtained the phone records of reporters, H-P employees and board members by impersonating them.

Reached by telephone, DeLia said he believes he did nothing wrong in the H-P investigation.

"I can't take any questions afterwards," DeLia said. "I am innocent of these charges. I have been a professional private investigator for more than 30 years. I respect the law. I did not break the law in the H-P investigation."

In an affidavit in support of the charges, Deputy Attorney General Robert Morgester wrote that an agent for the California Bureau of Investigation visited Wagner at his home in Colorado. According to the agent, Wagner said he destroyed his computer and other evidence of his involvement with H-P.

When the agent identified himself, Wagner said, "I was wondering when you guys would show up," according to the affidavit.

H-P released a statement saying the company "is continuing to cooperate with state and federal investigators looking into the boardroom leaks issue," and that it would have no further comment on the matter.

H-P became embroiled in the scandal beginning Sept. 6, when the company divulged the first information about pretexting in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Dunn began the investigations into boardroom leaks prior to Hurd's appointment as CEO in March 2005, but the probes continued into early 2006, when Keyworth was asked to resign at an H-P board meeting. Keyworth refused to quit at that time, but another board member, Thomas Perkins, resigned in protest over the methods used in the investigation.

Documents released by the Congressional subcommittee included e-mails between Hunsaker, and former H-P global security chief Anthony Gentilucci showed that the two discussed pretexting and whether methods used by DeLia to obtain phone numbers were legal.

In one email, Gentilucci wrote to Hunsaker, "He has investigators call under some ruse, to obtain the call record over the phone ... In essence the operator shouldn't give it out, and that person is liable in some sense ... I think it's on edge, but above board. We use pretext interviews on a number of investigations to extract information and/or make covert purchases of stolen property."

Hunsaker replied, "I shouldn't have asked."

Dunn resigned from the H-P board on Sept. 22, and Hunsaker and Gentilucci left the company last week, just before Congressional hearings were held on the H-P case. Dunn and Hurd testified before the House's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, but Hunsaker, DeLia, Wagner and DePante refused to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Dunn is expected to start chemotherapy treatments for advanced ovarian cancer later this week in San Francisco, according to other published reports.

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